Wendy Yoshimura
Wendy Masako Yoshimura (born January 17, 1943) is an American still life watercolor painter. She is known for her involvement with the leftist terrorist group, Symbionese Liberation Army, during the mid-1970s. She was born in Manzanar, one of numerous World War II-era internment camp for Japanese Americans, who were forced out of their homes and businesses along the West Coast. She was raised both in Japan and California's Central Valley. During her last year of art college, she encountered and became involved in radical politics as a result of meeting activist Willie Brandt. He founded the Revolutionary Army, another violent leftist organization, in Berkeley, California.
Appearances in Pop Culture[edit]
- American Woman (2003) by Susan Choi is a novel related to Yoshimura's life during that period of involvement with Hearst and the SLA. Characters are given other names and circumstances changed. It was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.
- It was adapted as a 2019 film by the same name, written and directed by Canadian filmmaker Semi Chellas. Hong Chau plays the activist Jenny.
- Wendy... Uh... What's Her Name is a 2006 documentary by Curtis Choy.